The entire airport area's GPS was shut down, says an official to the magazine.
When they had circled the airport for an hour, the pilot made the decision to land manually with the help of analog maps.
The disturbance occurred in Plovdiv in central Bulgaria on Sunday, when von der Leyen was on a trip in the EU's eastern countries to discuss defense preparedness due to Russia's war of attack in Ukraine.
Three officials with insight into the incident report to Financial Times that it is being treated as a Russian influence operation.
"Ever since February 2022, we have seen a clear increase in (GPS-) disturbances", it says in a statement from the Bulgarian aviation authority where the incident is confirmed.
Von der Leyen was able to leave Plovdiv in the same plane.
